36 Signs of exceptional talent
36 Signs of exceptional talent
One of my favorite lists of recent times, every point a banger.
i’m scared that they might be better than me at everything and that i’ll be out of job if they try to do whatever it is i’m doing
drop everything and work non-stop on a single thing if decide on the right thing to do
exceptionally clear writing
fast when it matters, slow when it doesn’t
really get “if you’re not sure what to do, just do the right thing”
deliver on an agreed schedule, even if it means getting best effort rather than perfect thing (and their “best effort” tends to be impressive given the timeline)
figure out assignments from people they respect on their own and deliver way above expectations on them
ahead of me on important thoughts, questions, insights, achievements (if very young: ahead of me at their age)
are clearly much better than me at >=2 important things
seriously ask the biggest questions & do their best to go all the way answering them
keep promises
impatient yet patient; brilliant yet dumb
ask questions that make people they talk to smarter and more specific
not scared of interrupting people
do what’s required to get where they want to get (rather than only doing what they’re good at)
have specific, correct hot takes (if young, on the path there)
delivered a ton of interesting projects that weren’t helpful for anything in particular (whether it’s writing, coding, leading or anything else)
learn really fast & you can see it from their behavior
actions reflect beliefs
have a history of embarrassing cold emails
have a promise of good taste
i have no clue how they’ve done what they’ve done
take ideas seriously
type really fast (clearly a spurious correlation but still interesting)
ok with being low status & not afraid to do things that are not viewed as “normal”
consistently surprise me
not afraid to majorly change a (successful) career path, if needed
when i look at their resume i feel embarrassed for myself
have 6 months+ periods of unemployment/underemployment
don’t give up (eventually)
see the future
don’t settle for proxies, zoom all the way in & out
keep doing what they believe is the right thing in the absence of any positive feedback or only negative (even if only perceived) feedback from others
have thought through everything
use first principles when there are no priors & use priors when there are priors
extremely curious
Reposted via Creative Commons via Guzey.com
His disclaimer of the above list is reprinted below:
“I’m often asked about the signs of exceptional talent I’ve observed, probably because I spend too much running around talking to people & observing things, instead of doing anything useful.
Patrick Collison, Sam Altman, and Tyler Cowen are the three names that come to mind when thinking about this question. Of my writing, Intelligence killed genius and (Autistic) visionaries are not natural-born leaders are most relevant.
Take this post as more of a no-filter brainstorming exercise rather than a list of requirements or anything of that sort and please don’t go around telling everyone that Alexey will only work with people who dropped out of undergrad and type really fast. It’s called “omens” for a reason & there’s a good chance I’m going to wake up tomorrow feeling embarrassed for half of it (unfortunately I’m terrible at interpreting omens and don’t know which half yet!).”